Dance of Darkness
by Bunny on the Moon
Summary: ONESHOT, early mangaverse. When Anzu's dreams of becoming a dancer are demolished, her offender must pay the ultimate price.


Hmm. I've noticed that when I write fanfics, they tend to be long with lots of chapters. I don't write a lot of one-shots because I get a sense of unfinished-ness when I do. :/ I'm gonna try to be better with that though So, here you go, a one-shot from yours truly! And now for your standard disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!. I'm simply borrowing it for my sadistic purposes :D This fic is based on the manga, and takes place before Yugi-tachi go to the museum and Shadi explores Yugi's mind. :3 DDR (and all music involved) is not mine either, but it's addicting and yay. Kouryuu Hotaru, however, IS mine. Don't steal her, k?   
  
- PIKAR

* * *

**Dance of Darkness  
by PikaChan**  
  
[ Yugi's POV ]  
  
It was a day just like any other. School, hanging out with my best friends, and things of the like. I was excited, though. I was going to go to the arcade with Anzu, Jounouchi, and Honda after school! I haven't been in a while, so I was surprised when Anzu told me that there was a new game there she she liked. Something about stepping on arrows and dancing to music... seems familiar though.  
  
I'm Mutou Yugi, by the way. I recently finished a puzzle that I've had for eight years, and I'd never been able to solve it before then. Some strange things happened when I did, though... There are times when I'll wake up, not having any recollection of what happened before... Also, as weird as it sounds, I think that puzzle helped me. Before I solved it, Jounouchi and Honda picked on me a lot. They were only trying to teach me how to be a man. However, after I finished the puzzle, they became my friends, and I realized what the key to solving the Sennen Puzzle meant.  
  
'Something you see, but cannot see.' I know now that the 'thing' was friendship! I'm hoping that now I can make more friends.  
  
"Hey, Yugi, are you in there?" I heard Jounouchi say. I turned to look at him; he was waving his hand in my face. He had kind of a lost expression on his face.  
  
"Err, yeah, sorry... I was just thinking," I said.  
  
Jounouchi grinned. "I was just wondering what you thought about that new girl. She's kinda scary," he said, shuddering.  
  
I blinked. We had a new classmate? I guess I was too absorbed in my thoughts to notice. My eyes scanned around the room, looking for any unfamiliar faces. "Where is she?" I asked.  
  
Jounouchi pointed to the back corner of the room, to a girl who was sitting by herself, boredly doodling on a sheet of notebook paper. She had pale skin and spiky black hair tied up into two pigtails, and long bangs covered the whole left side of her face. A streak of bright pink ran through the bangs, and she had at least seven earrings in her right ear alone! Her lip and right nostril were even pierced. The one eye that I could see was a bright green color.  
  
The girl caught me staring at her, and shot me a cold glare.  
  
"Eeee..." I shuddered. Jounouchi was right, she WAS scary!  
  
"Yeah, she's creepy, eh?" he said. "Her name's Kouryuu Hotaru. People are saying she was probably kicked out of her old school. They're probably right, she's been glaring daggers at everyone!"  
  
I gulped. What if she was like that bully Ushio? I'd have to make a mental note to keep my distance from her... people like that make me nervous.

* * *

The remainder of the school day went by in a blur. Jounouchi, Honda, Anzu, and I had all agreed to meet at the Domino Arcade an hour afterward, to give us time to change and rest up a bit. I was currently standing outside the doors, waiting for my friends to show up.  
  
I had changed into a long-sleeved black t-shirt with a light gray vest over it, and black pants. Of course I wore the Sennen Puzzle around my neck. It had become my most treasured possession, and I never left home without it, as silly as it may sound.  
  
I smiled, watching the sunlight gleam off of it. I turned it around in my hands, watching the gold throw spots of light onto the sidewalk below. I knew that this thing had something special about it, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it.  
  
"Oi, Yugi!" I looked up from my puzzle to see Jounouchi and Honda walking toward me. Jounouchi was waving at me, grinning, and he was decked out in a white t-shirt, denim jacket, and black pants. Honda had changed into a light gray shirt, a black jacket, and dark blue pants.  
  
"Jounouchi-kun! Honda-kun!" I said, smiling. Now we just had to wait for Anzu to get there, and we'd be all set.  
  
It was another ten minutes before she finally got there, and she appeared to have been in a rush. "Sorry I'm late!" she said, a bit out of breath. She was wearing a lavender turtleneck shirt, a white jacket, and a pink skirt. "I got kind of wrapped up in some things."  
  
"Well gee, that shows where YOUR priorities are," Honda joked. Anzu glared at him. I couldn't help my giggle a little bit, it was fun to watch my friends joke around with each other.  
  
"Come on," I said. "Let's go inside!"

* * *

The arcade was packed, which was odd considering it was a school day. Anzu scanned the large room, as if she were looking for something. "What are you looking for?" I asked her.  
  
She didn't answer, but I saw her eyes light up after a few more moments of looking around. "Come on, guys!" she said, motioning for us to follow her. She led us to an arcade game, which was surrounded by a rather large group of people. There were some bright lights coming from the parts of the machine that we could see (or at least Jounouchi and Honda could see them, all I really saw were the backs of peoples' heads), and we heard techno music. Lots... of techno music.  
  
A cheer went up from the crowd as the music stopped, and they parted way as a tall blue-haired boy stumbled through, out of breath and an angry expression on his face. "I can't believe I got beat by a GIRL!" he said, gasping for air. He then caught us staring at him, and spoke again. "I wouldn't go up there if I were you. That chick plays a mean game of DDR," he said, and stalked off.  
  
DDR...? Where have I heard that before?  
  
"Man, this bites," Jounouchi said, grabbing my arm and shoving through thr crowd so we could get a better look. Honda and Anzu followed, much to the protest of the crowd.  
  
When I could finally see what the game was, my eyes widened in realization. Oh! DDR. Dance Dance Revolution. Now I remembered. I had played this game at a carnival a while ago. I wasn't too good at it. What happens is you pick a song from a huge list, and then when it starts, arrows will start flying up the screen. You're standing on a small stage which also has arrows on it, and as the arrows on the screen reach the top of it, you have to hit the arrows underneath you with the feet. It's a lot harder than it sounds, believe me. Some songs are harder than others, some are faster, and some have different types of music. It was fun when I played it, but I didn't want to play in front of all of these people and make a fool out of myself.  
  
What really surprised me was the girl that was standing on the machine, obviously waiting for someone else to challenge her. It was none other than Kouryuu Hotaru, the new girl in our class! I tugged on the sleeve of Jounouchi's jacket. "Jounouchi-kun! That's the new girl!" I said, stating the obvious.  
  
Jounouchi looked down at me and blinked. "Yeah. She seems a lot different now that she's not in school," he pointed out. And he was right, this Hotaru was a lot different from the one we had seen in class. Her hair had been left down, and fell scross her shoulders. She was wearing a black tank top with pink flames running up the sides, and baggy black pants with chains and pink bondage straps. She also wore a spiked collar and fingerless gloves, and there was a big smirk on her face as she leaned against the bar behind the dancing area, her arms crossed behind her head. Now that I could get a better look at her, I saw that she was quite tall, at least as tall as Honda. She was pretty skinny too, with sort of a pear-shaped figure.  
  
"Kouryuu's the best DDR player I've ever seen!" a boy standing near us said. "She can do some of the hardest songs out there! It's insane, I've never seen a girl move like that before!"  
  
"Every person she's gone against today has lost!" another boy exclaimed. "I was thinking about challenging her, but I know I'd lose."  
  
I gulped as Hotaru turned around, her green eye scanning the crowd for her next 'victim'. I quickly shrunk behind Jounouchi. Please don't let her see me... she was scary enough, I didn't want to get beaten by her too. I was good at video games, but not the kind where you have to move around! "Anyone else ready to lose?" I heard her say. She had a rather deep voice, considering her small body structure.  
  
Suddenly, Anzu stepped forward. "I'll play," she said, a determined expression on her face.  
  
I looked up at her in surprise. "Anzu?!" Since when had she been into this game? I knew she liked to dance, and wanted to go study it in the United States, but I didn't remember her ever playing this game before. Then I remembered that she had said she had been coming up here for a while, maybe it was to play this. I probably shouldn't worry about her, I knew she was more than likely a lot better than me at this.  
  
Anzu handed her purse and jacket to Honda, and then stepped onto the dancing platform next to Hotaru. I could see Hotaru smirk again as she did this.  
  
"I've heard of you," Hotaru said. "You're Mazaki Anzu, supposedly the best DDR player at this arcade..." she said lowly. Her voice made me cringe, even IT was scary!  
  
Anzu nodded. "Well... I wouldn't say I'm the best..." she said, blushing a little. I could tell she didn't want to brag to someone she didn't even know. Typical Anzu.   
  
"That's not what I've heard," Hotaru continued. "I tell you what. Why don't we up the stakes of this DDR match a little?" she asked, sneering. The lights from both the game and the overhead lights glinted off of her piercings as she asked this.  
  
"...How so?" Anzu asked.  
  
I suddenly started to get very nervous. Hotaru had gotten this look in her eye that I couldn't quite put my finger on... but I didn't like it at all. She looked almost... sadistic, in a way. I wondered what she meant when she suggested they 'raise the stakes'...  
  
"What do you think she means, guys?" Honda asked, voicing my thoughts.  
  
"I dunno, man... but I have a bad feeling about this," Jounouchi said.  
  
Hotaru continued. "Mazaki, I know you want to be a big-shot dancer someday. So why don't we make a little bet?" She paused, letting the question sink in to Anzu's head. I didn't like the sound of this. "If you manage to get a better score than I do, then you will have every right to call yourself the 'Best DDR Player' at this arcade..."  
  
Anzu began to grow nervous, and she had every right to. I mean, she wasn't one to brag, she was too modest to keep a kind of title like that! There had to be something big at stake, if Hotaru were to win... I definitely didn't like the direction that this was going in.  
  
"...but if you lose, you have to give up dancing forever. If you can't even win at a game like DDR, then you have no right to call yourself a dancer." Hotaru's grin grew wider.  
  
My suspicions were confirmed. "Anzu, you can't accept that bet!" I shouted, coming out from behind Jounouchi. "We don't even know how good she is at this game!"  
  
Hotaru looked at me, and I shrunk away again. "Heh... you'd be better off if you listened to your little boyfriend," she said. I frowned. She called me 'little'... "Of course, if you're too scared to even attempt to play against me, then that would make you a coward."  
  
"I'm no coward!" Anzu said angrily. "I... I could beat you any day." Her voice quivered a bit, as if she were uncertain of herself.  
  
"Anzu, this isn't a good idea!" Jounouchi said. "Have you heard what everyone's saying about this girl?"  
  
"Shut it, Jounouchi," Anzu suddenly snapped. "If you guys don't have faith in me, how am I supposed to have faith in myself?" I flinched a little at her tone of voice. She sounded a lot more confident than before. "Kouryuu, I accept your challenge."  
  
"Anzu, it's not worth it..." I said. This girl was going to force her to give up her dream, and that was the last thing I wanted for my friend! But it was too late, Anzu and Hotaru had already inserted their money into the machine.  
  
"We have to play on the same difficulty," Hotaru said. "Otherwise there's an inequality when the scores are figured." Anzu nodded, and both she and Hotaru selected the 'Heavy' difficulty. I couldn't really see the difference... did it mean how hard you stepped on the arrows? It seems that 'Light' would be a lot easier...  
  
"You pick the song," Hotaru said, and Anzu nodded again, scrolling through the list of songs that had popped up. There were quite a few to choose from, and Anzu only had a minute and a half to pick one she liked.  
  
Anzu scrolled for a few moments, and finally stopped on one called 'Love Shine'. It was a fast and happy-sounding song, but its difficulty rating was a 7. A song is given a difficulty rating by little foot prints, and the hardest one is ten, while the easiest is one. I had heard that most 'Heavy' songs ranged from 7 to 9 'feet', but only a few were actually rated 10. I wondered if either of them would pick one of those, they must be really hard.  
  
"How about this one?" Anzu asked, turning to Hotaru.  
  
Hotaru only shrugged. "Whatever," she said, taking her place on the dancing platform. Anzu did the same, and she had a pretty confident look on her face. Maybe she'd played this song before, and was really good at it? I hoped my guess was right, because if she lost, then...  
  
It wasn't very long before the song actually started. I couldn't help but bounce along a little with the music, it was just a really cute and fun song! I suddenly realized what I was doing, and felt my face heat up a bit. I felt Jounouchi reach down and ruffle my hair a little. Okay, so I got into the music...  
  
I turned my attention back to Anzu and Hotaru. The two were moving pretty fast, doing lots of jumps. Jumps are when you have to hit two arrows at once, so you kinda have to jump to hit them. Since they had to do quite a bit of jumping, a few of the guys in the crowd were... giggling and nudging each other... My face heated up again, and I turned to look at the screen instead. Both girls had a combo of steps going, and it was over 200! That meant that they had gone that long without getting anything other than a 'Perfect' or a 'Great' on a step. Anything below that, like 'Good' or 'Boo' breaks the combo.  
  
I was surprised that Anzu was doing this well! I knew she was a good dancer, but she was matching Hotaru's steps in every way! It wasn't much longer before the song ended, and the results screen came up. Anzu leaned against the bar behind her; she looked a little winded, but not too tired. I looked at the game screen just as the results came up.  
  
"Wow!" Lots of cheers went up from the crowd, and I was surprised to see that both girls had gotten an AAA for their scores. They had tied!  
  
Your score is shown by a letter grade, sort of like something you would do in school. The highest you can get is AAA, and that means you do the song absolutely perfect. I would think that it'd be hard to do it just perfectly, but Anzu and Hotaru didn't seem to have too much trouble... I wondered what would happen since they both tied.  
  
"You can go ahead and pick the next song," Hotaru said. This confused me a bit. You did more than one song...? I guess I only did one song when I played at the carnival. I remember a pair of metal doors slamming on the screen in the middle of it, and it was over... I guess if you actually get through a song, you get to pick another.  
  
Anzu scrolled through the songs again, this time stopping on one called 'Drop the Bomb System SF Mix', another 7-footer. This one sounded considerably different than the pervious song; it was a bit slower and had more of a trance-y sound. Anzu looked at Hotaru, who shrugged and hit the button.  
  
This song looked a bit easier than the last one. There was a guy rapping in English with the trance music, which sounded a bit weird, but I liked it. I looked up at Jounouchi. "Do you think Anzu will win?" I asked.  
  
Jounouchi looked down at me. "I don't know... Anzu's doing pretty good, but Kouryuu isn't even breaking a sweat. You see how tired Anzu looks?"  
  
I looked at her. Sweat was running down her face, and she was breathing pretty hard, but she still seemed to be doing fairly well. Once again, she matched Hotaru's combo perfectly, but I didn't know how much longer she was going to be able to keep up. Hotaru just looked bored while she played the song, as if it was too easy for her. I began to worry. If Hotaru wasn't even winded, then would Anzu even have a chance at winning if she was already tired?  
  
The song ended quickly, and the results screen came up again. The crowd cheered again as both girls recieved an AAA like they had on the first song. Anzu leaned back against the bar, taking deep breaths. I worriedly looked up at Jounouchi and Honda.  
  
"Wow! Mazaki's just as good as Kouryuu!"  
  
"I wonder what song they're going to do next?"  
  
"Kouryuu's going to pick the next one."  
  
Hotaru was going to pick the next song? This worried me... she has just looked plain bored during the last two songs, I wondered if she was going to pick a harder one. One that Anzu couldn't handle...  
  
A few moments later, Hotaru scrolled through the songs, coming to rest on one called 'Sakura'. This song sounded pretty, it almost had a 'feudal-Japan' feel. I looked at the difficulty rating, and saw that it was a 10-footer! If Anzu was having trouble on a 7-footer, then there was no way she would be able to handle a 10!  
  
"Oh man, this is bad," Honda said. "That rotten little... she let Anzu pick the easy ones, and then she goes and picks something hard!"  
  
I was angry too. It wasn't fair to Anzu. "Hey! That's not fair, Kouryuu-san! Anzu's not going to be able to handle a 10-footer!"  
  
Hotaru glared at me. "You stay out of this, chibi." This comment made a few people in the crowd laugh, but it only made me angrier.  
  
Anzu turned to look at me. "Yugi, I appreciate your help, but... I can do it. I know I can." She smiled at me, and I had no choice but to nod. That was the thing about Anzu. Once she had her mind set on something, nothing could persuade her to do otherwise... That wouldn't stop me from worrying about her, though.  
  
The song started, and I was stunned. The arrows were moving twice as fast as the ones on the previous song! I shot a worried look at Jounouchi and Honda, but both of them were focused on the game. Neither Anzu or Hotaru held very big combos this time around, but Anzu looked like she was going to give out any minute now. _Come on Anzu, don't give up..._ I thought, clenching my fists. Even Hotaru seemed to be breaking a little sweat this time, but she was still focused and unwavering. Anzu had to hold on to the bar behind her to keep from falling over!  
  
I was nearly panicking by the time the results screen came up. Since neither of the two had held a big combo through the song, they didn't get AAA or even AA. Hotaru recieved an A for her score, while Anzu only got a C.  
  
Anzu fell to her knees. She had lost... did this mean she was going to have to give up dancing forever? Her dream?  
  
"Well, Mazaki... looks like I win," Hotaru said snidely, placing her hands on her hips. "You know what that means, don't you?"  
  
Anzu looked up at Hotaru, tears in her eyes. "I... I know... I have to..." She didn't even finish; she just stood up and ran out of the arcade, not even bothering to collect her belongings from Honda.  
  
"Anzu!" I shouted, starting after her. However, I turned around and shot a glare at Hotaru. "That was mean! You knew she wasn't going to be able to do that song!" Hotaru merely scoffed at me, leaning against the bar as if she were waiting for another clallenge.  
  
"That's what she gets for challenging Kouryuu," one of the guys in the crowd said. "She accepted her terms, and now she's suffering the consequences."  
  
I angrily ran out of the arcade, barely even hearing Jounouchi and Honda following. Something had to be done about this. I just didn't know what.

* * *

[ Third-person POV ]  
  
Hotaru was angry. Whoever had asked her to come to the arcade this late at night was just asking for trouble. When she had got home that evening, she'd had a message waiting for her, saying 'Meet me at Domino Arcade at midnight'. There was no name on it, so she wondered who had the guts to more or less summon her out here. The arcade was closed anyway.  
  
She was surprised when the glass doors of the arcade slid open as she approached them. Nobody was working, there were no lights on... what was going on? She cautiously stepped inside, not wanting to take any chances, if there was some kind of pervert hiding in there or something...  
  
The video games were all shut down, except for one. One with bright flashing lights, techno music, and a very grim-looking boy standing in front of the screen. The light from said screen turned the boy into a silhouette; the outline of a wild mass of star-shaped hair could be seen.  
  
Hotaru had seen this boy before. "Oh, it's the chibi," she said, approaching the machine. "What the hell is your problem, calling me out here at this time of night?"  
  
"Destroying the dreams of a woman is an inforgivable crime," Yugi said. However, something was different about him, this was not the same boy who had more or less cried for his friend earlier that day. This Yugi had a certain look in his eye that made him look far more menacing than the small boy. This Yugi's voice was more confident than that boy's. Hotaru didn't even know if this really _was_ Yugi.  
  
'Yugi' continued. "Let's play a game," he said, his voice growing darker.  
  
Hotaru smirked. "You're challenging ME to a game of DDR? How pathetic," she said. "You want to end up just like your little girlfriend, be my guest. I'll gladly crush you just like I did her."  
  
"This is not like any DDR game you have ever played, Kouryuu," 'Yugi' said. "This is... a _Yami no Game_."  
  
Hotaru's eye narrowed. "And just what makes this game so different from a regular game of DDR?" A hint of disbelief was in her voice. "What's so special about this one?"  
  
'Yugi' pressed a button to bring up the difficulty listing; it appeared he had already put in the money for both of them to play. "You and I will play three songs of your choosing. Should you win this game, your previous deal with Anzu will stand. She will not continue her dancing. However... if you lose, you must take back your deal, and you will play a Penalty Game," he explained.  
  
"What's the catch?" Hotaru asked. "There has to be a catch. This is way too easy."  
  
"There is no catch," 'Yugi' said, "except that we can choose any difficulty we desire. We will go by the letter grades we recieve to determine who the winner is."  
  
"Fine," Hotaru said, stepping up onto the dancing platform. "So you want me to choose all three songs?" she asked, crossing her arms. 'Yugi' nodded, and Hotaru smirked. "You're going to regret challenging me, chibi." After choosing her difficulty (Heavy -- 'Yugi' chose Light), she started scrolling through the list of songs, stopping on one called 'Graduation'. It was a nice, peaceful-sounding song. "I'll be nice and start you off with something easy, since you seem to be a hell of a lot more confident than your little girlfriend was."  
  
'Yugi' nodded, not taking notice to the 'little girlfriend' comment, and pushed the button to begin the song. Hotaru grew bored with it rather quickly and didn't put as much effort into this song as she had done during her 'battle' with Anzu, yet she still managed to pull off an AA, whereas 'Yugi' had only scored an A.  
  
Hotaru smirked. This was almost too easy. When she felt they had had enough of a rest -- all of five seconds -- she scrolled to the next song they would play. She stopped on one called 'Bag', which was another 10-footer, yet it was only 4 for 'Yugi' since he had picked the Light difficulty. The song itself was an odd one. It was much much slower than the previous one, and even the ones that she and Anzu had played earlier that say, and it sounded as if it were being played on bagpipes. An odd song indeed... Hotaru pressed the button, not even bothering to bring up the option screen.  
  
'Yugi' looked on in confusion as the arrows scrolled up the screen extremely slowly. On Hotaru's side, they were packed extremely close together, and he wondered how she was even hitting them. However, he kept going, and before long, this song was also over.  
  
Hotaru had broken a light sweat as the results screen came up. Well, it IS a 10-footer, and one of the obscure ones at that! She scowled as she saw her score -- only an A. 'Yugi' had also recieved an A, but he was also only on Light. "All right, that is IT," Hotaru said angrily. "You're going down this time, chibi!" 'Yugi' only quirked an eyebrow as Hotaru rapidly scrolled to another song. This one was considerably different than all of the others that had been played during the day; it was called 'Paranoia Survivor Max', and was basically... indescribable. It was 10 feet on Heavy, and one of the hardest songs in the entire game. There was no way that 'Yugi' would be able to pass this, even on Light! A sneer crossed Hotaru's face, and she pushed the button.  
  
Hotaru became so absorbed in hitting every step that she could, that she barely even paid attention to the boy beside her. The song itself was very fast, though not quite as fast as Sakura, but it was still worthy of the 10-foot status. It slowed down a few times, but that didn't make the steps any easier. A grueling minute-and-a-half later, the song ended and pulled the results screen up.  
  
Hotaru fell to her knees. That last song had really winded her! Not only was she exhausted from the day, but her legs also burned from playing two 10-footers. She looked up at the score she recived, and growled in fury when she had turned out to get a D. However, her eyes fell on the A that 'Yugi' had received, and she clenched her fists and stood back up. "H... how did you manage to get an A?! That song is 5 feet on Light!"  
  
'Yugi' merely smirked. "Who said I was playing on Light?" He pointed to the little symbol on the banner, showing that he had not played on Light, but Beginner mode. "We were allowed to pick any difficulty we desired. You were just too blinded by your desire to win, that you didn't even notice me change mine."  
  
"You... you rat..." Hotaru said, panting. "Don't get so cocky, you haven't won yet," she said, pushing the button to bring the final results screen up. Her eye widened in disbelief. "What... no...!"  
  
Hotaru's overall score was a B. While 'Yugi', having gotten an A on all three songs that he had played, recieved an A. She had lost!  
  
'Yugi' turned to Hotaru, a grim expression on his face. The Sennen Puzzle around his neck began glowing brightly, engulfing the room in its luminescence. "You have trespassed in the soul of my friend," he said, "and now you must play a Penalty Game."  
  
The black-haired girl shrank back in horror as she saw that... that **thing** around 'Yugi's neck start to glow. "N... no! I... I'm sorry I hurt your friend! Just... please, spare me!" she shouted, a couple of tears forming in the corner of her eye. This wasn't supposed to happen! She was supposed to have won the game and teach that brat a lesson!  
  
'Yugi' frowned, the glowing shape of an eye appearing on his forehead. "PENALTY GAME!!" he bellowed, pointing a finger at Hotaru. "ENDLESS ARROWS!!" The light coming from the Sennen Puzzle was now at its brightest.  
  
As soon as the words left his mouth, Hotaru heard music. It was unlike anything she had ever heard before, yet something about it compelled her to dance. "I... I got an... Extra Stage...?" she muttered. "But... how?" She saw arrows start to fly up the screen in front of her, and she began hitting them. "I... I don't care how... I got an Extra Stage... I've got to... clear the... Extra Stage..."  
  
'Yugi' stood there watching her for at least five minutes before turning around and walking away. _Overconfidence will only come back to haunt you in the end. Kouryuu Hotaru, your desire to be the best DDR player will ultimately be your downfall._ With that, he walked out of the arcade, as Hotaru continued to dance to nothing.

* * *

[ Yugi's POV ]  
  
Today was strange... for one thing, I was extremely exhausted. My legs were burning, and I could hardly walk. I had absolutely no recollection of anything that had happened last night... I remember dropping Anzu's purse and jacket off at her place, but everything after that is just fuzzy...  
  
Speaking of Anzu, she's been depressed all day. That Hotaru... she was really mean to Anzu. She basically forced Anzu to play a round of DDR with her, and then after she beat her, she forced her to give up her dream of becoming a dancer. That's really really low.  
  
"Say, Yugi..." Jounouchi's voice broke my thoughts. "Kouryuu isn't here today. Y'think something might've happened after we left yesterday?" he asked me.  
  
I looked around the room. Hotaru was indeed absent. "I don't know..." I wondered what could've happened to her. Maybe someone got on her case after we had left? I noticed that a few people looked pretty angry at Hotaru as I left the arcade yesterday... but would that really keep her out of school?  
  
"Hey, guys..." Anzu's depressed voice said. She sat down in the seat in front of me backwards, resting her head on my desk.  
  
"Hey, Anzu... how are you feeling?" I asked. I was still worried about her. Her dream had basically been shattered, and she had to be upset about it. Anzu's dreams are what she holds dearest to her heart, much like my puzzle. I know if something ever happened to it, I would be in her condition as well.  
  
Anzu didn't answer, she only sighed. "Still feeling bad, huh...?"  
  
She suddenly spoke up again. "I was thinking about going back to the arcade today," she said.  
  
Now this was a surprise. "What? Why?" Jounouchi asked. I was confused too. Surely she wouldn't be able to show her face in there, after what had happened yesterday...  
  
"Well..." she started. "Maybe some other kind of video game will help me get my mind off of this. Y'know?"  
  
I nodded. It was understandable. "Okay," I said. "We'll go with you. I'll ask Honda-kun to come too, we'll all go as a group. Right, Jounouchi-kun?" I asked, turning to him.  
  
"Yeah. Gotta have your friends to stick behind you in times like this," he said, winking at Anzu.  
  
A tiny smile formed on her face. "Thanks, you guys..." she said. I smiled back. I'd do anything to see my friends happy.

* * *

After school, the four of us went back to the arcade, not even bothering to go home and change. The first thing that caught our eyes was the crowd around the DDR machine. Anzu sadly turned away from it. But something was different this time, people weren't 'ooh'ing or 'aah'ing over whoever was playing... they sounded almost confused.  
  
I started walking toward the machine, curious to see what was up. I barely heard Jounouchi and Honda calling after me. I squeezed through the crowd of people, and what I saw before me was a complete shock. "Jounouchi-kun! Honda-kun! Anzu! Come and look at this!" I shouted back to my friends, and they all rushed over to see what was up.  
  
"Woah, what happened here?" Jounouchi asked to no one, scratching his head.  
  
"What the..." Honda muttered.  
  
Anzu gasped, and I just stood there with my mouth hanging open.  
  
There, laying on the dancing platform, was Hotaru. She had a ring underneath her eye, her hair was matted down with sweat, and she just lay there with her legs twitching. "Must... finish... song..." she muttered, barely audible.  
  
"Wow... something must've happened to her last night," Honda said. "She's gone off the deep end."  
  
I looked up at Anzu. "Y'know, Anzu... you shouldn't take what she said to heart. Why should you let her completely destroy your dream? You should be able tyo do whatever you want, however you want to," I said, smiling lightly. I can't believe this didn't hit any of us before. There was absolutely no reason for Anzu to give up on her goals. None of us really knew Hotaru, so her opinion about it didn't really matter.  
  
Anzu's face lit up. "You know, Yugi... you're absolutely right! I'm not going to let anyone crush my dreams! Not even Kouryuu!" she clenched her fists and looked up at the ceiling.  
  
"Well, she's back..." I heard Honda mutter. That was followed by an 'oof!' which could only have been cause by Anzu's elbow in his stomach. I laughed at the scene. Yep, it was great to have the happy Anzu back.  
  
Hotaru wasn't at school for a week after that. I honestly still don't know what happened to her. I'm guessing someone eventually called an ambulance to have her taken away... Jounouchi said she was probably put in the loony bin. But whatever happened to her, she certainly deserved it. Nobody crushes the dreams of my friends and gets away with it.  
  
But who taught her the lesson she needed to learn...?  
  
-owari- 


End file.
